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Which is exactly what Astros fans are hoping for, GS. We've got one month left and that's all we're getting. It comes down to which Astro team will show up on a night-to-night basis.

Actually it would come down to exactly what I stated....an immediate and immense reversal of luck for Texas.

They are already riding the crest of their good fortune this season and may coast home from here if their luck does nothing worse than return to normal.

Their established ability based on their run differential is .500 ball. They are currently at 77-54 with 31 games to play. So if they were to go 16-15 down the stretch, they wind up 93-69.

The Astros have been playing .523 ball with an established ability of .538 ball. They have 31 games remaining and if they play at their established level, they go 17-14 and wind up 85-77. To reach 93 wins they would need to go 25-6 down the stretch, or .806 ball.

The Astros not only need for the Rangers luck to drop to well below the norm, the Houston team which needs to "show up on a night to night basis" needs to be the '27 Yankees.

The Astros have taken care of business against the A's. Now come two critical tests for Houston, and all happening at Minute Maid. Next up are the Cubs, probably the biggest surprise in baseball this year when you look at their win-loss record. They were going to be good, but not this good. Anyway, the Good Guys get the North Siders for three this weekend. After that, the Rangers come to town, and that may or may not be a good thing.

Every one of these are must-win games for the 'Stros. All of them. No excuses. None of this will be easy. This will determine how far this team can go in September in getting where they need to be.

If you watched those games you got a great summary of the A's whole season. Today it was a dropped third strike which set up the winning score. Monday was a classic in that the A's went way out of their way to hand Houston its first two runs. After the first two Astros were retired in the bottom of the second, the sequence went:
Reached on an infield single which just as easily could have been ruled an error.
Reached on error by A's thirdbaseman
Reached on an error by A's thirdbaseman
Walks in a run
Gets ahead of the next batter 0-2, and then gets cute and winds up walking him for the second run.

^^^ Case, your team might have the steal of the winter meetings with bringing in Brian McCann. I remember how he used to beat you guys when he was in Atlanta, and now you get to see how he'll come through for you this coming year. You guys are going to be huge now!

The Astros have a new TV play-by-play announcer, and it's a familiar last name for Astros fans. We get Todd Kalas, who is the son of the late, great Harry Kalas (former radio voice of the Astros in the 1960s). He'll be a great addition on TV and he'll be teamed with Geoff Blum.

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